Graham's English Cider

It clears up before the taste is optimal already as it is.

mike_in_ak said:

It clears up before the taste is optimal already as it is.

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+1--this stuff get way better with age. a few months in it's drinkable but kinda meh. At about 6 months it gets to be great! It'll definitely clear by this time.

Go ahead and bottle with the weird stuff on top. I always get that from this recipe. If you want to be really safe, crack a bottle after 2-3 weeks to make sure it's carbed, then stove-top pasteurize.

mike_in_ak said:

It clears up before the taste is optimal already as it is.

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Thanks for clearing that up ;-)

Actually, the reason I asked is because I am experiencing a shortage in carboys (I'm sure many can relate). My goal is to clear the cider as quickly as possible after fermentation has completed and then get it into bottles for the recommended aging period. Thoughts?

There's gonna be some benefit to bulk aging.

And it would probably clear in bottles without the stuff.

Although I don't usually secondary with beer, I love that secondary with this means I get to top it off with more juice. So you get rid of the trub volume and get to add more. Probably adds up to half a gallon or more cider final product.

Minimum time to accomplish the top off: 10-14 days primary, rack to secondary and top off for another 10-14 days to eat the new sugar. Then Bottle and age. So 20-30 days of using a carboy.

If you don't care about the extra half-gallon+ of cider, I guess skip the top of and just age in bottles.

It'll bottle clear without anything else. I have bottled after 4 weeks or so without ill effect.

mike_in_ak said:

Probably crap from the limes. F- it. Bottle, drink, repeat.

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I am gonna taste it and bottle it if it still tastes good.

Yeast Nutrients? I ususally just use Notty, how much and what brands of Yeast nutrients do you use?

Stuff from my lhbs has no brand or ingredient information. And the nutrient looks identical to the energizer. And they're the same price. Very suspicious.

Made a 5-gallon batch of this up yesterday. I had purchased 6-gallons of apple juice at Costco (Kirkland brand) some months back and forgot about them down in the basement. Discovered them again recently and decided to make this up. My only issue was that when I pulled my 6-gallon Better Bottle out, I discovered a small crack in the bottom. So, I pulled out my 5-gallon Better Bottle and used it. Pouring all 5-gallons of juice in lead to an overflow issue, so I poured just a little out to allow for a small amount of headspace before I pitched the yeast, which was 1-packet of S-04 that I had purchased specifically for this recipe. Didn't have time to take a starting gravity reading, as I literally had to run out the door after hooking up the blowoff tube, but I followed the directions exactly using 4-Twining's Irish Breakfast tea bags and the juice of 1-lime, plus 1-teaspoon of Wyeast yeast nutrient boiled/steeped for 10-minutes in 3-cups of filtered water.

After making this, I cracked a bomber of Brandon O's Graff that I bottled at the end of last July. I still have a few of these left, and IMHO, they're tasting better now than they did before. It'd been a couple of months since I've had one, but I'm glad I still have 6-bombers and 2-12-oz. bottles left!

I plan to leave Graham's English Cider in the primary for 1-month, then transfer it over to a glass carboy secondary, top it off with more apple juice, and forget about it for a few months. I am looking forward to having it around at the holidays later this year, and will likely begin cracking into them around Thanksgiving.

I just bottled my batch made 8/31/12. Backsweetened with two cans of AJ concentrate. It tasted ok. Hopefully it develops better in the bottle. Gonna monitor the carb level and pasteurize.

So just took a gravity at day 13 and it was 1.000 the yeasties look pooped ... I gave it a shake ... They need to work more ... Not sure they have it in them though!

Tasted decent ... Very dry, bit sour, alcoholy smell, very little apple flavor ... But it didn't taste bad!

I'm happy so far ... It's going to work out well

I posted on this somewhere above, but I don't know where or really the specific timeframes.

But, the apple flavor in mine really took off after a month in the bottle. I don't remember total time since the beginning. But it was like a switch went off.

mike_in_ak said:

I posted on this somewhere above, but I don't know where or really the specific timeframes.

But, the apple flavor in mine really took off after a month in the bottle. I don't remember total time since the beginning. But it was like a switch went off.

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Yeah I'm in for the long haul ... Gonna let it sit for another 2 weeks in primary and then rack it and forget about it

Yeah I had very few bottles left when the apple taste took off. Had to start another one.

mike_in_ak said:

Yeah I had very few bottles left when the apple taste took off. Had to start another one.

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was actually thinking about doubling up on it ... once i rack just jump right into another batch

I dropped my first one on to a yeast cake left over from graff, worked great.

Just bottled this 5 days ago, Sunday, and it is carbed like a mofo. Maybe with only a little priming sugar it takes a few weeks to carb, but with two cans of ah concentrate, it is carbonated to the point where it is foamy when I pour it in a glass. About to pasteurize in a turkey pot. Praying for no bottle bombs.

Be careful. I had one once that blew the lid off of my pot.

Yeah man that always seems like a dangerous game, but when it works out I bet it's awesome.

Have not been brave enough to try.

Laowai said:

Thanks for clearing that up ;-)

Actually, the reason I asked is because I am experiencing a shortage in carboys (I'm sure many can relate). My goal is to clear the cider as quickly as possible after fermentation has completed and then get it into bottles for the recommended aging period. Thoughts?

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Mine is 14 days old and it's already cleared up ... I'm not thinking its gonna be problem .. The yeast is totally done

Bottling from fermentation is possible

mike_in_ak said:

I dropped my first one on to a yeast cake left over from graff, worked great.

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That's an option the time frame would work out well. They're both due to be racked at the same time

Just bottle pasteurized my Graham's English Cider. I was worried they were too carbonated to pasteurize as they were super carbonated after five days of backsweetening with two cans of aj concentrate. I managed to get them all pasteurized, but the bottom of one of the six packs fell out when carrying it into the house and three exploded.

A moment of silence...

Pasteurising..

A must?
Or optional?

snowboardc said:

Pasteurising..

A must?
Or optional?

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A must if you are not fermenting til completion or backsweetening and bottling for carbonation. Not necessary if you're going to ferment til It's completely done and not backsweetening/carbonating in bottles. You could keep them in the fridge to stall further fermentation, but I usually keep mine in cases conditioning at room temp and just put a six pack here and there in the fridge.

+1. Only pasteurize if you are trying to get it to finish sweet. I let mine go all the way.

One month in primary and still having same issue. No gravity reading??? It went for a month with some bubbling. No real crazy action though. I am ready to rack but am wondering if I need to get it where it will read first.
Anyone know what I am doing wrong?
As a side note it does taste quite like cider.

zymurph said:

Yup. I've heard two can of AJ concentrate are the way to go. Who am I to argue?

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When do you mix in the concentrate?

snowboardc said:

One month in primary and still having same issue. No gravity reading??? It went for a month with some bubbling. No real crazy action though. I am ready to rack but am wondering if I need to get it where it will read first.
Anyone know what I am doing wrong?
As a side note it does taste quite like cider.

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Gravity goes down with fermentation, not up.

But looking at your previous post, I think something must be wrong with your gear. What is the lowest/smallest reading on your hydrometer?

tennesseean_87 said:

+1. Only pasteurize if you are trying to get it to finish sweet. I let mine go all the way.

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Dirty Cider, goes all the way every time with me too.. Cider you got some splainin to do!

I bottle this cider today! Can't wait to try!!!

And I have not tasted a complete product to date!

I started brewing three months ago and introduced this cider into the mix. i have three carboys going at this point in time - all from one pack of notty.

this batch took off within 60 minutes! i am not sure how many yeast cake pitch i will do on the notty.

Does anyone have an answer for using FRESH apple juice (self squeezed from a juicer) in making hard cider??? Any advice???

So I made this about 6 months ago and it's just now really starting to come into its own. I did a month and a half in primary then 2 months in secondary. After that I bottled and it took about 2 months in the bottle for it carbonate properly and to start tasting really good. It had some off flavors at about 5 months that have really died down. This a great summer thirst quencher...just remember to start it early and forget about it for a while.

I made batch of Ed Wort's Apfelwein 3 months ago and I stumbled upon this thread last night...

Long story short, I back sweetened my "cider" and steeped an english tea bag in my glass a few minutes for the heck of if and i was AMAZED at how much things changed. Not just in flavor (mild change) but in texture/mouth feel.

I'm going to be steeping some tea in my next batch just before bottling.

I am a little uncertain if my fourth batch is going in the right direction. I have re pitched on a package of notty three successful times. This last time I noticed that there was some darker sediment in the carboy. So I decided to wash the yeast. I am using unfiltered juice. In doing so I put the yeast in a half gallon glass container, let set for 30 min and pitched the golden liquid. With the other repurchase, activity took off really quick, but I put it right on the cake.

At ten hours, there was no activity but a positive push on the airlock (just not bubbling).

At 22 hours, it is bubbling, albeit slow (not like the last few times).

I have no idea the yeast count I pitched so I am wondering if I way under pitched and if I should add a pack of notty or just let it go another day.

What are your thoughts?

Any thoughts on scaling this down for a 1 gallon batch? I have a 1-gallon that I brewed up when experimenting with different yeast strains. It ended up less than impressive and I want to juice it up a bit. I was figuring 1 teabag of Irish Breakfast tea and juice from a quarter lime.

Just wanted to comment we have tapped the four and a half month keg…it is amazing. Clear, crisp and lots of apple. I now have a solid rotation where I will never be cider free…

Its amazing now and I can definitely tell a difference from the first pint pulled two weeks ago…this tasting is much smoother with more apple. This is a great recipe. Only give it to a few folks that like cider…and they all agree, its great.

I know this is an old thread, but I made this recipe and it turned out dynamite. I was a little unsure at first because even after 3 weeks in the fermenter and 2 months of batch conditioning it still seemed too tart and a bit thin. I bottled it and every month it got better and better. I entered it in our big regional Florida homebrew competition and it took best of show for ciders and meads! It became a superbly complex and refreshing dry cider. I think when I do it again I will leave out the lime, it was more tart than it needed to be, but the tannins from the tea bags were spot on! Great recipe, can't wait to try it as a base for some experimentation.

In your receipe you say to add juice at secondry, will I be sqweezing more lime juice for this? How much if this is the case?
Thanks
Dan